HDD by stefan @ 2014-03-05
The Stream S03 USB 3.0 HDD from Silicon Power comes in a sleek chassis with a matte finish and features an activity LED which shows us the current transfer speed (USB 2.0 or USB 3.0). The product can be picked up in both 500GB or 1TB variants and the internal drive has a rotation speed of 5400RPM.
I would like to thank at first Silicon Power for supplying a sample of their Stream S03 USB 3.0 Portable HDD for testing and reviewing.
“Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists in International Business, Global Marketing, and Technical Engineering of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, Silicon Power has been recognized and well accepted by millions of end-users in more than 100 countries, becomes the world's leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, DRAM modules, solid state disks, and portable hard drives in less than a decade. Headquartered in Taipei, we continuously established various branches throughout the world including Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Mainland China and other emerging market to reach the worldwide market.
Silicon Power's overall performance has gradually drawn great attention worldwide. In 2006, we received Taiwan Rising Star Award for our foreign business achievement. In 2008, we won 17th National Outstanding Small & Medium Enterprise Award for our outstanding progress. Moreover, with superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Winning trust of global consumers, Silicon Power holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. According to the Common Wealth Magazine's 2010 Survey of Taiwan Top 1000 Manufacturers, our 2009 revenue growth rate was ranked No.11 among Taiwan's top 1000 manufacturers, and even ranked No.1 in semiconductor industry.
Positioned as Passionate, Creative and Hungry for Success, Silicon Power introduces products for users who are seeking individualized, unique and personal digital storage devices. With the mission of creating unprecedented experience for users, Silicon Power will endeavor to deliver a full range of high quality products that have innovative designs, distinctly unique features and comprehensive after sales services to create and fulfill your personal memory.”
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant and backwards compatible with USB 2.0
- Matte surface treatment resists fingerprints and scratches
- Power saving sleep mode
- LED indicates power on and data transfer activity
- New version of SP Widget free download software, providing 7 major back-up and security functions (256-bit AES file & folder encryption)
- Dimensions: 12.25 x 7.75 x 1.33 cm
- Weight: 145g
- Capacity: 500GB, 1TB
- Standard Compliance: USB 3.0 / 2.0
- Data Transfer Rates: Max. 5 Gb/s (USB 3.0 Mode); Max. 480 Mb/s (USB 2.0 Mode)
- Power Supply: DC 5V (Power supplied through USB)
- Operating Temperature: 5?~ 55?
- Storage Temperature: 40?~ 70?
- Supported Operating Systems: Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2000, Linux 2.6.31 or later, Mac OS 10.5 or later
- Color: black, white
- Three-year warranty
In this review will look upon another external USB 3.0 drive from Silicon Power, which features a similar packaging design as the last model, with a plastic window which allows us to take a peek at the product without unsealing the box:
On the lateral side we get to see some approximations regarding how much media files would fit on the drive depending on the capacity:
On the back we can take a look at more details like technical specifications, package contents, supported operating systems and so on:
Along with the product we will also get an USB 3.0 cable and a small User Manual which will have the necessary info for operating the Stream S03:
For this drive Silicon Power has adopted a page-fold-like design; the top plastic layer features a matte finish which does not pick up fingerprints:
The folded area is made from a shiny black plastic and hides the activity LED which lights accordingly depending on the detected transfer rate:
On the left side we can see some more logos and the total drive capacity; the right side however is clear:
On the top side of the enclosure the manufacturer has placed the USB 3.0 port:
The bottom side has the same matte finish and in the corners we will be able to see some small plastic feet:
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel I7 Retail @ stock
Motherboard: Foxconn BloodRage with G42 BIOS
RAM: 3x2GB Patriot PVT36G1600LLK 1600MHz
Video: Sparkle GTX 470 with stock and OMNI A.L.C.
Power Supply: Nexus RX-8500 850W modular
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11
Case: Thermaltake Armor+ LCS, stock cooling
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Expansion: ASUS U3S6
When powered on for the first time, we will see that the Stream S03 drive comes formatted FAT32, with a single partition:
With the help of AIDA64, we will be able to extract some more information about the drive, which is a Samsung Momentus M8, with the rotation speed of 5400RPM:
On the drive we have preloaded an utility which helps with the product registration:
A free-to-download utility is to be found on the Silicon Power website, which contains multiple functions to the drive:
The interface of the software is split into multiple sections:
One of the functions is the ability to backup the My Documents folder:
Next, we can sync and backup any folders from the internal drive:
We can always choose to encrypt or decrypt the data stored on the drive:
Also, we can backup My Favorites folder, Outlook Email contents or different tasks:
The software also comes with a “PC-Lock” function:
Some more details about the drives can be found in the “Storage Device Information” tab:
The SP Widget app can be also updated from the same interface:
Finally, with the utility we can also change the language of the interface or scan the drive contents:
Silicon Power has come up with another sleek looking External HDD on USB 3.0, which features a transfer LED that shows us the current operating mode (red for USB 2.0 and blue for USB 3.0) and is available in both 500GB and 1TB sizes. The chassis matte finish is providing protection against fingerprints or stains and thanks to the curved corners the product can be held with a good grip.
The performance of the drive is similar to the other 5400RPM drives we have tested in the past and should be alright for storage purposes or for moving data from one system to another.
The product is available in both black and white colors; the 500GB variant can be found online for about 54 Euros while the 1TB is available for about 70 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Silicon Power for making this review possible!